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MHG11624 - Broch, Strath Carnaig

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(NH 7050 9903) Broch (NR) OS 6" map, (1959)

The ruins of a broch with a circular enclosure abutting on its ENE side. RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

A broch, surviving as a hollowed mound, c2m high, on a rise above a flood-plain. The inner face, 1.2m maximum height, and outer face, 0.4m high, are visible for most of periphery, giving an internal diameter of c8.3m within a wall c4.3m thick in ENE widening to c5.7m in WSW. According to OS (WDJ) in 1963 there was an entrance, 1.5m wide in the WSW, and although this cannot be verified as it is obscured by tumble, the increased thickness of the wall and a hollow in the rim of the mound suggest that it was in this arc. There is a gap, 0.7m wide, in the inner face of the broch on the N side, probably the entrance to a mural gallery, the inner face of which is discernible for a short distance in the S. The central court is obscured by debris. Abutting on E arc of broch is a circular stone-walled enclosure of uncertain date and purpose. It measures 16m diameter between centres of a wall spread to c2.5m wide, which is overlaid by a modern wall. No entrance is apparent. Traces of a smaller enclosure on NW side of the broch. They may both be associated with depopulated buildings in the vicinity. Some 8m from broch on slopes to S and W is a discontinuous line of stones, possible part of a revetment.
Visited by OS (W D J) 17 June 1963 and (N K B) 10 November 1969.

NH79 1 BRAE ('Strath Carnaig') NH/7050 9903 (visited in 1989)
Probable broch in Dornoch, Sutherland, in the form of a crater-like mound of rubble on a rise above a flood plain; there is turf growing in the interior. The structure is badly ruined although both wallfaces are visible throughout most of the circuit. These indicate an internal diameter of about 8.3m with the wall thickness varying from 4.3m to c. 5.7m.
An entrance was reported on the west-south-west in 1963 but later visitors, including the author, could not see it [1]. A gap 0.7m wide in the inner face on the north side was thought to be the entrance to an intramural gallery and by 1989 a fragment of this gallery had become exposed. A small section of scarcement can also be seen now.
Dimensions: internal diameter c. 8.3m, wall thickness 4.3m thick in the east-north-east, and c. 5.7m in the west-south-west. The overall diameter should therefore be about 18.3m (60.0 ft) along that diameter but is perhaps less elsewhere. In 1989 an accurate survey of the inner wallface was undertaken and showed it to have been set out close to a true circle with a radius of 4.05 +/-- 0.11m (a diameter of 8.10 m, or 26.56 ft) .
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NH 79 NW 11: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 38, no. 107. <1>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 7050 9902 (16m by 17m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH79NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	DORNOCH

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